What Causes Cold Sores

Cold sores can be defined as small, fluid-filled blisters or sores, resulting from a virus infection. The blisters are usually visible on the lips, mouth, or nose of the infected person. Apart from being ugly looking, cold sores are also quite painful and can last for a couple of days. The worst problem with cold sores is that the viral infection, which results in their occurrence, does not get eliminated by the body defenses completely. The result is that they often recur, that too in, more or less, the same place. The recurrences might be frequent, like once a month, or occasional, like once or twice a year. In order to treat the problem once and for all, it is very important to delver into the reason behind the same. In the following lines, we have provided complete information on what causes cold sores.

 

The main reason for the occurrence of cold sores comprises of the human herpes viruses. Of the 8 known human herpes viruses, there are two that mainly result in cold sores, namely herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2). The type 1 virus is responsible for majority of the cold sores, while the type 2 mainly causes genital herpes outbreaks and results in very few cases of cold sores. Both the viruses remain dormant in the human body, unless exposed to certain triggers. In the following lines, we have listed the factors that can activate the two human herpes viruses, in turn causing cold sores.